Artist's Statement: The Wave Series

“The contemplation of light and movement in nature, and how it alters our perception and mood, is a universal concept that I never get tired of exploring in my painting.”

Working primarily in oil or pastels, the artist builds thin layers of color, the indicators of light’s effect on our conscious world. The rhythm of the stroke takes on the rhythm of nature, creating a visual stimulation and connecting the viewer to the movement.

Pat Whitehead was born in New York in 1949, and received her BA in Fine Arts from Mary Washington College of the University of Virginia. After a successful career in graphic design, she spent over seven years immersed in her art while living in the Caribbean and traveling extensively in Europe and the United States. Now settled in the low country of South Carolina, she has embarked on a series of natural based abstractions that explore the transition of light.

“Sometimes the transition is quick and dramatic like a bolt of lightening, or a wave rushing in. Often it is subtle, with a stealth like quality that changes our world without us being consciously aware of the metamorphosis. When we look back in time, we recognize the transition. I am trying to capture that moment of forward movement in nature.”